Logan proceeded with bringing them to the village inside the forest as Duke released his knights to spread the news to the mansion that they would spend their night with her aunt; Stella. Howbeit, the following journey didn't justify the beauty of the place. They went inside the most crooked place thanks to Logan's poor sense of direction.
All because he rarely traveled on land as he loved to move under the water.
The vibrant forest turned dark, not by dint of the sunlight, the deeper inner layer represented the darkest energy of the forest otherwise. The dark fog and mist blinded their eyes, confusing most of the travelers including Logan. The sixth sense had to activate to find the correct path.
After a lot of trials for whatever reason, they safely arrived at a luxury village glittering with bronze, silver, and gold all around like nobody's business. Thanks to the flow of the river they followed, cutting them half of the unspoken problems for an instant; possibility of encountering the other beast inside the deep forest.
It was not a secret that the river was siren and mermaid territory. No other beast dared to linger around the river without a purpose.
The village was so breathtaking, almost made Elizebeth drop her jaw to the ground. They walked in silence through the village's clean street. They passed the butcher shop with their hanging fresh meat, displayed at the counter's ceiling. A tough-looking beautiful woman with her bloody plastic apron smirked at Logan and nodded at them as a welcome ceremony, the greengrocer with his window full of apples, watermelons, and grapes, a grocery store, surprisingly an electric shop as well.
They went deeper without stopping as they felt the dozens of stares onto him, not with contempt, with curiosity nevertheless. The main road narrowed as they walked further until they saw a dozen neat straw houses near them. There was no particularly large number of curious eyes as the entrance and more to mind their business kind of being.
"My people mostly didn't care enough to know you until you decide it's cool for you to approach them," Logan explained shortly with a loose shrug.
They continued their walk until he stopped at the most humongous castle they'd ever seen just at the top of the hill. And they didn't even realize they'd climbed the hill all along.
"Holy…" Elizebeth gaped.
This was legit out from the fantasy book. It may not be as big as they proclaimed but it's indeed bigger than they thought. It's smaller than their mansion, but the biggest inside the forest and it is massively considered they were living in the forest.
"The artistic and building architecture is immaculate." Elizebeth clapped her without recognizing it, the trio brothers followed her action as well.
Logan puffed his chest, standing tall, proud. "Mom! Mom! Mom! Brother!" Called him soon after. He knocked on the door intendedly.
"Logan?" The puberty boy, with a rough voice, called him.
"Brother! Open the door, will ya?" He knocked, a wide grin on the face while another handheld the Duchess's hand, squished in pure excitement.
"Logan? What'cha doin? Door unlocked. Please ya'self."
"No. Ma hands full. Can't freakin' open the door. I have presents for ya." The slight tremble inside his voice almost exposed them.
The rough voice quieted. The noiseless sound filling the tense that built up as went by almost killing each of them. The duke blinked nervously as he tried to make sense of the situation he was in. It was his first time knocking at someone else's door without prior notice. An uncomfortable feeling flying inside his stomach, he covered up with his stoic face as usual.
"Logan! What ya flipping arse pulling this crazy prank again, yeah? I ain't have a time in the world to play with ya. Shoo shoo."
Logan fluttered his eyes in disbelief before he laughed and glanced at the Duchess for a moment, the tension broke right there. Both of them were laughing mischievously. The prank would be successful.
"Brother. Open the door. I swear, have presents for mom and ya. Daddy's not here, we finna deal with him later."
"Gosh, Logan. For the love of unicorns, do me a favor and turn around. Go meet the cute little human girl or whatever. I don't care. Have things to do, yeah." The voice stubbornly didn't want to follow the instruction well.
"But the cute girl is here. In front of the door." He pouted but winked at Elizebeth.
"Huh? Ya crazy, aren't ya. What'cha doin' bring the human little girl here? Humans are nasty, well not all but the majority of them are. Except for our cousins and uncle. They are cool- that besides the point. Anyhow, do me a favor and return her Gosh!" Complained the boy from inside.
"But brother-"
"Mom!" This time the high-pitched volume startled the duke family without the teenage boy imagining. "Logan BROUGHT a HUMAN child at the DOOR!" Snitched him without care.
Elizebeth, Indulf, and Logan couldn't control and almost laughed so they forcefully clasped their mouths to not let the audible sound to be heard.
"... what?" It's faint, almost inaudible to ears, the sound of a serene voice answering him. Stirring the duchess heart, about to shed a tear.
"Yeah, that piece of art's making trouble again!" Reported him.
The duchess nodded at Logan when the polite nephew gazed at her lovingly. She saw the faint proud smile from Logan and felt the tight squish small fingers around hers. It's an attempt to calm her down, it did work.
"Logan honey?" The serene voice became clear as the steps sound came closer before joining with another step from another person.
"Mommy! We have a guest. A several of 'em, in fact." His voice vibrated uncommonly though none of the duke's family realized it.
"Why'cha bring her here?" The teenage voice nagged at him, getting closer.
"Because I like her enough." He tried to sound nonchalant like he used to act to get on their nerves.
"Honey, my honey bun." The mother sighed.
"We should've shipped him off together with dad, I swear to the magic tree." Complained the teenage boy again.
The duke's family could feel it coming down as the voice approached them. The steps slowly advanced, a few steps away to meet the long-forgotten sister and aunt.
Click!
The sound of the door handles clicking behind the door from the inside. Elizebeth gulp. Finally, the day she'd dread was here and she couldn't halt the rapid beating of her heart. She clenched her fist, stared straight to the unopened door. Today would be the answer to all of her answers. The history of civilizations, the mystery riot between humans and beasts, and the face revealed to her aunt that she longed for.
In a way, it was both her and her mother's day. They needed to take a chill pill to decrease the speed of the heartbeat. The nervous sweat felt like a river behind her back. Her brothers were quiet, observing everything, half-anticipating half-nervous. Their straight faces didn't give away any strange feeling, the otherwise calm lake of eyes now shaking like crazy. They were overwhelmed as well, it seems.
The door, at last, was opened and Elizebeth experienced the situation in slow motion. Her mind took a mental note as the door swung softly from the inside. The dark greeted them at first. As the door widened the gap, the sunlight slowly entered the mansion. She captured a slight detail like the blue ocean color on the ceiling, the clean white-colored wall with different sizes of handprints with also different color patches around the wall. It's creative and pretty. The floor was so marvelous. Nothing but perfect.
"What trouble did you commit this time, my honey bun…" The identical face of the duchess came in view with a tall teenage handsome boy with black hair and green eyes identical to his mother stared at them in shock.
"Oh." The teenage boy gaped. His eyes traveled around the duke's family and his brother whereas the mother had stopped functioning, permanently landed the stare on the duchess.
The duke's family stared at them both too. The similarity is so uncanny. Elizebeth looked exactly like her mother's side. Except for the hair of course.
"... Mom! I- I think this piece of art brought notably exclusive guests." He gasped back and recollected himself back.
"Ri- right. Yes. indeed. What a magnetic day to hallucinate."
Logan moved his lips, feeling accomplished. Proud spiking inside him. He pulled the duchess closer to his mother and he took the mother's hand. "Mommy, this is aunt. Mommy is missing aunt. Logan brought aunt and her family to meet mommy."
His words were like a spell to both of the duchess and the aunt. They had the look like they were in the middle of dreaming, assessing each other, fluttering their eyes to not miss any detail.
"Mother's speechless," Indulf whispered to his father, coincidentally he was too loud to consider it as a whisper because apparently everyone heard him just fine.
The duke stroked his son's head in a warm gaze onto him. Part of him was grateful to break the silence but part of him felt intimidated by the sharp gaze from the mixed siren-nymph eyes of his nephew.
The older son of his sister-in-law looked explicitly as his mother, the teeth looked exactly like father, he thought. He was half nymph and half siren. He was tall for his baby face yet reek of masculinity. His body was built like a knight. The sharp look of his was methodically Elizebeth's version of man. When the wind accidentally ruffled his hair, he looked robust.
"Stella!" The duchess called, sobbing almost instantly. The overwhelming feeling attacked her at once. Her hand slowly tried to grab her sister's hand and her body swung violently, only Logan's strength at her hand calmed her inner feeling again.
"Marliene?!" Aunt Stella ran towards her in two steps, caught the fragile body inside her embraced. Crying inside it together. The sound of two strong ladies echoed amongst them.
At last, after years of separation, they're back in each other's arms again.
"Uncle…" The boy smiled at him, changed the duke's prescription. "I am Dante. 15-year-old uncle's nephew. Nice meeting you." His speech was eloquent. Split image of his daughter.