I peel my eyes away from Marigold and keep looking at the armor. It was a masterfully crafted work of art, without a doubt. It was an amazing gift.
"Marigold, I didn't realize that you had a Brother," my mother comments.
"He's estranged from the rest of my family and doesn't go out much. I normally don't bring him up, because I rarely see him," she says with a far off look in her eyes.
"It's a shame, I'd love to meet him," my mother says.
Marigold just gives a small resigned smile. It would appear that it was a touché subject, but it seems they still had contact if she made me armor out of his scales and her own.
"Well if you're done, then I would like to give my gift to Hollis. It seems that it's only logical that I'm next since I'm the third oldest," Salem says dryly as he stands up.
Salem was without a doubt a little ticked off. I don't know what made him so angry, but I wanted to know!
This almost impassive brother of mine was starting to show emotions that I'd never seen him produce. Of course, this was an epic development for him.
He stands up from his position next to my mother and walks over towards me and kneels down. His dirty blond hair slightly curly, his emerald eyes are still stern and closed but something about that was comforting.
With all the new people that I was meeting, it was nice to know that I still had Salem. I've been around him since I was born into this world. It was safe to say that he was one of the closet people to me.
He pulls out a small box from the pocket of his jacket and holds it in his hand. The box was little, about the size of a jewelry box. It was a simple black felt box, but he held it very carefully as if it would shatter if he wasn't vigilant.
"Hollis, I know that these are small, but they're for you, to keep you safe," he says peeling open the black felt box.
Inside the box, are two shiny rainbow-colored baby hop earrings. They look like someone captured a rainbow and put them into these tiny earrings.
They're simply… beautiful.
"They're beautiful, Salem. Can I wear them?" I ask him, looking up into his eyes.
I saw, even if only for a moment, a small twinkle in his eyes.
"Of course, let me help you put them in," he says matter of factly, as he plucks them from their confines in the box.
He pockets the box but holds the earrings in his hand.
I remember that I don't have my ears pierced.
"Salem, I don't have my ears pierced," I tell him quickly feeling a little annoyed now that I remembered.
A small smirk appears on his lips.
"Don't worry about it," he says as he moves towards my right ear. Before, I could even ask what he meant. A small burst of pair lights up my ear but vanishes just as suddenly as it came.
He does the same to the other ear. The process was the same, and I raise a hand up to touch my ear and sure enough, they're in my ears.
"How?" I ask.
"They're a magical item, they're protect you four times from a killing blow. Of course, it'll only activate if needed," he says with a smile.
I nod my head and rub my finger along the earrings.
"Thank you, Salem," I lunge towards him and hug him.
He's a little shocked, but he slowly returns my hug. As soon as I huge him a hint of blush started to color his ears red like a strawberry.
Laughing, I release my hold on him, if the I held on any longer he would have turned into a puddle.
I can't help but beam at him.
"Ahem," he clears his throat and stands up.
"It's my turn then! Isn't it?" My final brother asks, he was an enigma.
Something about him, just made the hair on my body stand up in attention. It was as if he could see into my soul.
He walks over to me, with soundless steps and stop right in front of me. He looks down at me and now that I've gotten a closer look.
His parlor is deathly pale, almost as if he was stone cold dead. I knew that we're technically dead, considering we're vampires, but he looked like a corpse.
Those golden eyes are bright and alert, but the black bags underneath of his eyes is so deep and sunken in. He reminded me a lot of a shut in that I would have seen in my last life.
"Sister, even though they all gave you very practical items for combat purpose or protect and defense purpose. I wanted to give you something that was practical to that and the every day," he says with a laugh.
His slightly long curly dark hair flopping about as he pulls a very simple black bracelet out of his pocket.
Examining the bracelet that in his hands, I notice that it's got some writing on it in silver, but it almost too small to see with the naked eye.
"This is an infinite storage bank," he tells me holding out the bracelet and motioning for me to give him my wrist.
I consent and stretch out my arm.
"What do you mean by an infinite storage bank?"
He fastens the bracelet to my wrist, and it's a perfectly snug fit to my small wrist.
"Good choice son, these other buffoons of mine are giving her things to send her off into battle. While you've given her something perfect for her goals of also being a merchant!" My father's hearty voice interrupts my question.
"It's a particle for both," my mother retorts.
Paying neither of them any mind, my brother clears his throat.
"It's a storage item, you can put anything inside it and then pull it out at another time. It's able to store living things as well as inanimate things," he says with a creepy laugh.
This was pretty useful, wasn't it?
"Thank you," I say giving me a crooked smile.
"No problem at all, lil Sis," he says with another creepy chuckle.
He was a little odd… wasn't he?