A Brother-Sister Relationship
Unrestricted. It was how she felt in the skin-tight leotard as she began to charge forward, the gymnasium fading into a blur of dark wood and standing figures, the smattering of onlookers sitting in the bleachers fading out alltogether. Powdered chalk flew from her paws and feet as she ran, coming out of her fur and giving her the appearance of trailing clouds of steam. Her tail was held stiffly upright, her biggest disadvantage in these gymnastics events...but she had been training for years and knew how to handle it by now, dipping it down as she launched off the springboard, reaching up with her paws to grab the bar above. The connection was satisfying, more chalk flying as she wrapped her fingers around the bar, giving just enough to her bodyweight to help her rotate up and over the bar. She let go, staring at the floor far below the bar as she twisted around...managed to grab it on her way down so that her heart could start beating again. Gracefully, she swung herself up and arched her back, spreading her legs to halt her momentum. It took tremenduous effort, but she managed, the skunk balancing herself upside down on the beam. Carefully, her whole body shaking, she raised her legs slowly upright, holding herself rigid before allowing herself to fall. Wind whipped through her fur, her tail streaming out behind her as she kicked up her legs and let go of the bar, transferring to its twin, set up higher off the ground. She took hold of this bar only breifly, throwing herself high up into the air and away from the pole, over the empty blue mat and unforgiving cement. Head over heels, she somersaulted, her own tail obstructing her sight of the ground. She straightened. Her feet impacted with the mat audiably, and she hid the flash of discomfort it caused, focued on remaining upright. The crowd erupted in applause. Looking up at the judges and her near-perfect score, she felt nothing more than boredom.
The young skunk walked from her victory looking as though she'd lost, the medallion around her neck forgotten in her private musings. As fun as gymnastics was, she was indeed quite thoroughly bored with it. From a young age she'd been pushed into it, and she had excelled. Some of her trainers were Olympic class gymnasts themselves and sometimes spoke of sending her to the games...she should have been happy, but she was not. She should have been thrilled. She sat down on a bench near the bleachers and looked up to see her eldest brother blocking her light. He was a tall, purely white skunk; without a strand of black fur on him. His eyes were also curiously red, a feature that often served to freak out others when he stared at them intensely; which was one of the many mind games he employed on the unsuspecting for his own amusements. His hair was long, and smooth, hanging to shoulder length and affording to him an almost elvin look. There was certainly a regal quality about him; a kind of charisma that could be palpably felt. Syl just knew him as her eccentric big brother, first in line to inherit the family estate.
She fakes a smile, holding up her medallion for him to see it.
"You don't seem too terribly happy about it.", he responds after giving the medallion much scrutiny.
"Could it be because that's not actual gold?"
She chuckles at his remark. "It's...just another medal. I won the competition."
Reginald stands there with his hands on his hips, knowing his sister well enough to tell that things were going unspoken. Sure enough, after the silence between them was threatening to stretch into territories well past awkward, Sylvannah spoke up: "Don't tell Mom and Dad, but I don't want to do this any more..."
She was expecting Reginald to be taken aback. Instead she was a little surprised by his nod. "I was wondering when you'd finally come around, dear Sylvannah. First it was piano, then it was violin, then it was gymnastics. What will you let them push you into next?"
Sylvannah draws her lips into a thin, wry grimace. "Mmmh. So you...know then? How I feel about it?"
Reginald smiles and makes a grand sweeping gesture with his arms. "You're my sis. How could I not notice?" There was actually very little, if anything, that Sylvannah could have hid from him given the fact that he was in love with her in addition to having deliberately trained up his casual observational skills over the course of many years. Unlike the young female, Reginald was adept at keeping his own secrets. Sylvannah saw him as a tough nut to crack.
"There are so many things that I want to do...but my parents won't let me."
"What is it you want to do, Syl?"
Visions ran through her head, of sports demanding of endurance and competition, real sports that took effort and teamwork and carried the element of danger. Her room was adorned with posters depicting soccer heartthrobs and rugby players...a signed photograph of a fencing champion....All things which she would never get to do on account of her parents.
"Forget about our parents for a moment Syl. What is it you really want to do?"
She looks up at him with a pained expression. "I want to do the things you do, Regginald! The sports...with actual competition! I'm good at gymnastics, but I want to challenge myself with something...." She couldn't bring herself to say 'dangerous', afraid that he would tell her the same thing as her parents. Instead, she finds herself completely shocked when the albino skunk drops down onto bended knee and takes her paws in his.
"How about I teach you fencing?"
"What? Oh no...Mother would never allow it..."
"Mother doesn't have to know."
"You're serious."
Reginald gives her one of his trademark goofy grins. They both knew there would be heapings of trouble for the both of them if they did this behind their parent's backs. And yet...for the first time the young skunk found herself afforded the opportunity to do something for herself...something that she wanted to do, without anyone elses say in the matter!
"You know they'll find out eventually."
"They will.", Reginald agrees. "But by then you'll be so darn good at it they won't have any say in the matter."
Eagerly, Sylvannah sits up. "Ok then...teach me!"
Reginald beamed at his younger sibling, glad that she'd taken the first step in his master plan, and that she'd done it without his having to bait her.