In a distant and hidden field, guarded with the best and oldest ruins, Rio Vidal-Harkness is sitting on an underwater tree in the lake of her home, while she watches her son climbing slowly the trunk on one of the strongest, thickest and leafiest tree in their estate with branches strong enough to carry any weight.
Usually in that enchanted forest, where the Vidal-Harkness family resides, the weather is temperate, however, that summer day the heat felt muggy, scorching and suffocating at the same time. For this reason and without notifying the matriarch of the family, Rio and Nicky went swimming to cool off their bodies, although in reality swimming is not exactly what they were doing.
— Nicky, you better hurry up, before your mother discovers us and sends me to talk to San Pedro — says Rio with a combination of fear, nervousness and excitement. She loves her wife madly, but as the old wise people said, “love does not take away knowledge” and her wife turns into a wildest beast when it comes to their son.
— Mami, you can't die — responds a small but brave child sitting on the thickest and highest branch of the tree, while he gains the courage to stand up and jump into the lake, where his mother is anxious waiting for him — Besides, as mom says, who the hell is San Pedro? — The little boy concludes, looking amusedly at his mom with that mischievous glow that he shared with her.
Rio looks at him in surprise.
— Nicky, what did Mom tell you about saying words you don't understand? — the brunette said while biting her lips to keep from letting out the laugh she felt in her throat. If she laughs and her son tell his other mother, Agatha is going to torture her and not the good one, not the heart stopping, buddy on fire torture she knows and loves.
Shaking her head before those naughty memories takes residence in her head, she encourages her son to jump.
— Come on Nicky, jump already! So we can pretend that I didn't hear you say a bad word and I never gave you permission to climb that tree, much less jump off it. Let's go Nico! Before, and as Mexicans says, me cargue el payaso — (The clown charged me, popular Mexican expression used to indicate that someone is in a difficult or dangerous situation, or that something has gone wrong and probably is going to die, and in this case, Agatha is going to execute Rio)
Nicky, now standing on the branch, looks at Rio as if she had grown two heads and laughing innocently, replies
— Mommy, you're weird — Rio just smiles lovingly at him, replies
— That's what your mother says and that's why she fell in love with me. Well, that and — she clears her throat — other skills — she says with a special shine in her eyes, light that only appears in her brown eyes whenever she is talking about her wife or son.
The little male copy of Rio can only laugh and shake his head from side to side
— true love — the little boy murmured as he now prepared to jump into the lake.
Swimming quickly, Rio stands under the tree, ready to catch Nicky.
— Come on, Nico — Rio encourages him because she had seen in her puppy's eyes that same look of determination that her wife had when she was going to do something that was practically impossible.
Breathing heavily, Nicky takes three steps back to push himself off the branch he is standing on. Using all his courage he lets go of the back of the tree, feeling his heartbeat wildly with fear and adrenaline, he starts gain momentum in his steps and throws himself into the void, screaming with all his being.
————— COWABUNGA! ———————
………
But he never touches the water
"Weird" Nicky thinks.
He heard a muffle scream of terror coming now from someone next to him, causing him to slowly open his eyes.
The first thing he observes is his mami's expressive eyes, panic and fear, looking behind him, specifically at the shore.
"oh no … That could only mean one thing" reason Nicky in his mind.
Slowly he turns his head in fear toward the direction where his mami is still locking.
And yep, he is right
— Can someone tell me what the hell you two think you're doing? — The matriarch of the family growls furiously with Señor Scratchy on her shoulder, while she watches her wife and son in the lake, looking at her with fear, surprise and guilt in their eyes.
Agatha seeing that the pair doesn’t move muscle, much less begin to talk, she sighs and stops suspending her son in the air. With her purple, she gentry settles him in the arms of a stunned Death, who unconsciously puts him on her hip, while both brown eyes keep looking at her with terror and panic.
Crossing her arms, she exclaimed with dazzling sarcasm and demands an answer
— Well, this time, who’s the mastermind behind this shit show?
The two black-haired looks into each other's eyes for a few seconds and then, locks back at the black-haired woman. Quickly both of them, taking air into their lungs and pointing at the other's chest, they scream so loudly that even the nearby birds flew away like their ass were on fire.
— IT WAS HERS!
— IT WAS HIS!
Nicky shouts at the same time as Rio.
Thank Mother Nature for that 300-year training, Agatha thinks, because if it weren't for that self-control, she would be on the ground spitting out her lungs for the scandalous laughter she would have let out. Only her two children could make her want to laugh like that, because let’s be honest, she have two children, cause when her wife joins her son, the two of them are catastrophic chaotic little devils.
— What I am going to do with you two…— Agatha sighs as she approaches the lake and leaves the cotton ball on the ground. She stars passing the ground in front of them, while rasing her fingers to list all the magnificent adventures of that maniac pair
— First there was the great idea of the flying broomstick competition in the rain, then the hole traps in the dark to see who fell first, and if that weren´t enough, let's not forget your last great feat, transforming poor Señor Scratchy into a mythological being to see which one of you had the most bizarre and terrifying monster — Agatha shaking her head, laughs maniacally, while her wife and son watch her from the lake, worried about her mental health
— I swear to the gods that one of these days, I'm going to get green, purple, and even blue gray hair — concludes the black-haired woman while the two brunettes look down at the water with their cheeks red
Rio gathering all her courage, begins to explain the … situation.
— Mi amor — coughs — we were … mmm — Rio clears her throat nervously as she quickly tries to think a solid argument that can get them out of Agatha’s wrath. Lucky for her, Nicky interrupts her.
— Mom, a few hours ago, in my lesson I was learning about gravity, I didn’t understand a few concepts, so Mami was showing me with examples the waves that different objects produce when they fall. And because of that, we wanted to see if with my weight we could make giant waves, plus it is too hot outside and that way we would also cool off. If you ask me, it's a win – win situation — Nicky finish with his best smile and his full puppy eyes, because he knew that they would help him get out of trouble with his mom.
Rio looked perplexed and with great pride at Nicky, if there was any doubt before,which there had never been, because her puppy is her copy, that he was her son, this moment finish sealing his fate as her son, the Prince of Death, because only her children, would respond by admitting only half of the truth and would try, at the same time, to manipulate the person with his physiological features.
Agatha has the same reaction as her wife, "only our children would answer something like that", the black-haired woman thinks amusing.
— You're lucky that it's very hot outside and I love both of you so them much, pair of little devils — Sighing loudly and smiling lovingly at them, she declares “forgive them”
Using her purple magic, she takes her son from Rios arms and puts him back onto the tree, where minutes before he jumped.
— Come on Nicky, go for it. And Rio — making eye contact with her wife — you better catch him because if not... — she had nothing more to say, because Rio understood perfectly well that if something happens to their puppy, Agatha will find a way to kill her. It wasn't a warning, it was a damn promise.
— As you wish, my love — her wife answers faithfully, as she prepares to receive Nicky, who was ready to launch again.
Taking a deep breath and without hesitation he threw himself into the lake and being the son of The Green Witch and the Witch Killer, as he fell, he laughed maniacally. The same laugh his mothers had perfected over the centuries.
Between laughter and praise, Nicky came to the surface, welcome into the arms of her mami. Agatha, changing her clothes with her purple, she changes into a black swimsuit that contrasted splendidly with her white skin. Slowly she enters the lake until she melts into an embrace with her heart and soul, her wife and son, while Señor Scratchy sunbathe from the shore.
They are little devils, but they are hers and for nothing in the world she would change them, she would protect them to the death. She pities anyone who wants to attack them, because the Vidal-Harkness family are powerful individually, but together, they are indestructible.