We all came back to our senses at some point. I stayed to protect Corey as did Emma. The leader and Coreys uncle and brother were all killed by us that day. Along with countless other nymphs and gang members. While some of the nymphs stayed loyal and tried to fight others saw it as there chance to escape and took it. Half of Russia was burnt to the ground by the end. Both members of the mafia and civilians were killed and this was the start of something much bigger. This was the first time in centuries that nymphs showed ourselves and truly fought back. New spread quickly of it and large populations of nymphs all over the world started to fight back against those who had kept us captive for so long. It caused countless lives within both parties to be lost, but by the end of the year there were no more enslaves nymphs. A world war broke out because of one action from dragons, it was one of the bloodiest wars in the entire worlds history. Yet it's not taught about in schools and isn't recorded in offish capacity, it was simply meant of be forgotten. A time of darkness and a period of bloodshed pushed under the rug by the remaining leaders of the world, kept as secret as the existence of nymphs.
Since that year long period nymphs disappeared, as far as any human knows we don't exist and we are nothing more than a fictional creatures in fairy tale you tell children, before bed or part of scary stories told around a campfire. The rest of the world thinks this, but that's not the truth. The nymphs that escaped all went into hiding, some returned to the human world after things had calmed back down. The children of most of the nymphs that went into hiding went into the human world as well, they were all told stories of the humans and what they had done to our kind. It was a scary story told to children of nymphs to make them behave, if they didn't the hunters might come get you. Although they were stories told from a young age the generations who had experienced slavery and being hunted soon was the only generations left hiding, the new generations of nymphs had changed. There appeared as human and didn't change into there other forms. They simply went into the human world and became part of there society, with that the genetics of nymphs became mixed with humans even more. Until how it is today where only little pieces of our heritage and genetic codes are left. We simply are stronger or faster or smarter in most cases. We do have access to our old magic and our mixed forms if you know how to access them. The thing is most don't since we have mixed into the human world, our ancestry and old ways have been lost to time. We have lost our old practices and the ways of the past, along with the techniques that made it possible to control elements and magic as we knew it.
There are still stories told but they are seen as nothing more than stories, even though they hold far more facts and true events then they have of things that are made up."
"Gramma is that true?" I asked.
"Of course it is Meg." My Great grandmother said as she brushed my hair back.
"Grandmother stop telling her stories like that, she's already has to wild of an imagination to begin with. You don't need to be filling her head with nonsense tales of magic." My mother said.
"They are nonsense, all that I have said is the truth Elizabeth." She replied.
"Meg don't listen to her, they are simply stories of a rambling old lady." My mother said and my gramma frowned.
I always hated when mom was like that with gramma. After all gramma raised her after her parents died in a car accident, but she's always so mean to her.
"We'll be leaving now. We will see you next year for your birthday again." My mother said.
"Bye, Happy birthday gramma." I said as I held her hand. She put something in my hand as she squeezed my hand as tightly as she could in between both of hers. Her hands were cold and fragile as her soft wrinkled sink pressed against mine. I could see sadness in her eyes and written all over her wrinkled face.
"I will see you both again next year." She said weakly. With that my mother reach out her hand telling me to grab onto it and leave. With that we left the room I looked back at my gramma who was bedridden and in a nursing home. She looked like a ghost with her pale face and white hair. Her eyes were sunk in and looked sad and watched us leaving almost longingly. Her face was wrinkling and frowned but it looked as if she might try to get up and follow, as if she longed to leave the room and come with us or for us to stay. We only ever visited once a year on her birthday, she had been bed ridden for a few years. She got hurt while she was at work one day, a shelf at the store fell on top of her during an earthquake. It broke both of her legs and her back and she hasn't walked since, my mom put her into a nursing home right after that. She didn't want to look after her since she got hurt. All she does anymore is sit in the bed all day and staring out of the window in her room. It's the only source of sunlight she truly has and it's not a very good view it looks out to the court yard. It's a little square area that is surrounded by the other rooms that all the windows have a view of. The courtyards garden isn't very well maintained though. Most of the flowers are dead and weeds have taken over in most places. There are a few small trees but they no longer produce any leave or flowers they are bare all year round. Even most of the grass outside is brown from not getting enough water and not being taken care of. I think that's why my mom only bring me once a year. The rooms and hallways are all white brick as well with dim lights that are a yellow tint on the ceilings, they are the only source of light when walking down the hallways, and all doors are made of wood and are painted white as well, they have little windows in the middle of them that let you look into the rooms, but I can only see inside them when my mom carries me because they are two high up for me.
The place isn't particularly nice and I rarely ever see any staff when we are there, it's almost as if it's been abandoned. I held the thing gramma gave me in my hand all the way out to the car. I buckled myself up in my car seat in the back and mom drove off. Gramma gave me a little locket. I put it on while mom was driving and not paying attention to me, but I could get the locket part to open. It was stuck and I wasn't strong enough to make it become unstuck. I was going to ask mom for help but I was worried she might take it away so I didn't say anything. It was a little gold locket almost in the shape of an egg, it had an Octagram on it with a bunch of swirls and in the center of the octagram was a piece of azurite with a dragon with feathered wings and tale engraved on it. The dragon was in a circle as well, the head of the dragon was facing the tale. In between the points of the star in the part closest to the center there were three small pieces of azurite.
**
Azurite is also know as the stone of heaven due to its coloring looking like it's in space or clouds, and because the people who found it believed it was a gateway to heaven. No other stone has the same deep blue colors captured inside it.
**
It was a beautiful locket even if I couldn't open it. After all it probably doesn't open up anyways. Thing like this are normally just for show but I have make sure mom doesn't see it and get mad at me. It's not very hard to hide things from mom though. She really doesn't pay that much attention to me to begin with. She works all day and is always gone when I come home from school. Then when she's off she always has her boyfriend over. He's mean, he always is drinking and smells bad. He hits me and mom, but she never gets mad at him for it. She's doesn't try and stop him from doing it either, she used to get mad that he was always drunk and she called him an alcoholic, but she doesn't say anything to him about it anymore. Which is fine since he doesn't come over that much when I'm home, and I normally just hide when he's here. I have this hiding spot underneath the stairs in the house. There's on underneath the stairs to go upstairs and one under the downstairs one too. It's not a big hole so it's to small for him or my mom to climb into but it's not to small for. They don't know that's where I hide though they just think that I leave or don't come home. Which is fine since I have toys, snacks, drinks, pillows, blankets, and a few lights there. The whole is small but it opens up to the complete size of underneath the stair well and the basement one goes into the crawl space. I keep a lot of things there its always cold in the crawl space though. That's why I have a coat and a bunch of blankets and a sleeping bag in there. The crawl space makes it so I can have my lanterns and other lights and they can't see it through the whole so i like it in there the best. It's also always cold enough that my drinks stay cold. I have water and juice pouches and some athletic drinks in there. I also have granola bars and fruit snacks and chips and some other stuff that my mom buys for lunches. It's mainly stuff from the dollar store though but it means my lights are all battery powered so I don't need a plug for anything. It's also where I keep all of my important stuff, like my favorite stuffed animals and toys. It's also where I hide my money that I make.
We are just commoners and we don't have very much and my mom's boyfriend is basically homeless because she drank and gambled all of his money away. Mom works for a some low level nobles near by she works in the kitchen all day. I don't get as good of an education as they do and all the nobles look down on us since we have less money then them and they consider use impure.
I read about a time when it was by classes and the government used to help people in need, but now the king and imperial family don't help any of the commoners and none of the nobles do either. The only help we get is from the church and even all they do is give food ever now and again. Mom always said she wanted to open a bakery or a restaurant, but you need money to do that. The only people who own a business are the nobles since they are the only ones who can afford to. It's how they keep there power, over taxing the poor to make up for barely taxing the nobles. The nobles are the ones who super the imperial family so those are the people they have to keep happy since nobles have knights and guards, it makes it so commoners can't fight back even if they wanted to. I think most of moms money goes to keeping gramma in the nursing home, and the rest is spent on food and other stuff because she's always stressed out and talking about how she needs to work more to pay for the house.
I feel bad but I save my money to buy myself food. She never has enough money to buy enough food for all three of us. She sold my older brother off to some nobles, after gramma got hurt I think that's how she was able to afford her medical bills. I think my brother is a knight or butler somewhere now, but I'm not really sure. She sold him when he was 10 so now I do things to get money that way if she tries to sell me I can run away. I relieved mail for people since I taught myself how to read and write since school only goes over the history of our empire and teaches us who rye highest families are, so we know the Dukes of the empires symbols. They also teach us basic etiquette that way we can work for one of the noble houses potentially. We have 4 different houses with the title of Duke. There symbols are a black panther, an eagle, a white stag, and a blue wolf. The imperial family's symbols is a golden lion with wings wearing a crown.
Before school I always go to the book store and that's where I taught myself to read and write. I spent the money I made selling flowers to buy books that taught me how to read and write. Now I can write letters for people and deliver letters to people. I make 1 gold coin and 5 silver coins a week doing that since it's hard to come by people who can read and write in the imperial language since normally only nobles are taught and they don't work for places like the mail office.
I'm only 10 years old now but I'm going on 11 and my mom will sell me off to someone at some point to pay for bills most likely. She might make it so I have to get married but I can't marry until I'm 14. Nobles don't come of age u til they 16 for girls and 18 years old for boys. They have a coming of age ceremony and along with a big party to celebrate. Commoners don't have the same luxury. We normally marry before we are considered adults but the imperial family and church made it illegal to marry before the age of 14 for both males and females. Since you aren't legally married until you go to the church it makes is so you can't get sold off to marriage until then. Although there are people who still get sold off as a concubine before the age of 14. I won't be one of those people. My mom makes 20 silvers a week working her job. It takes 200 silvers to equal one gold coin so I'm doing much better than her, but I hide my money that way her boyfriend can't spend it on more alcohol or drugs or gambling. It's my go money for if they try to sell me off that way I have money to pay for food and shelter, if I need to run away.
I have all the knowledge I need to be able to leave. I bought books on magic since we do have some mages, but it's hard to learn magic and not every has the affinity to do so. You have to have mana. Gramma says only nymphs can use magic, that's all that's left of the traces of nymphs at least is what she tells me. I don't know if I should believe her because mom always says she's crazy from being stuck in that place. Magic books are more expensive than other books though they cost 5 gold coins.where as the books I bought to learn how to write and read imperial language were only 40 silver a piece. I also have book that taught me old English and German and Russian, those ones were 60 a piece though. It was worth it since now I can read things from other countries since our neighboring countries speak Russian or German or old English. I can be a translator now when people come to our country or when we get letters in another language and I get paid an extra gold coin to translate or write letters in those languages. It was worth the money I spent. I keep those books in my hiding spot too. I also leaned math and science those books were only 35 silver coins a piece. My favorite our book about different countries those ones are only 20 silver they are the same price as a history book.
I've done everything I can to try and out myself ahead of the game. My teacher says I'm a genius, since I've studied chemistry, physics, biology, anatomy, mathematics, our countries history, along with our neighboring countries history and cultures. I can also fluently read, write, and speak 4 different languages. She said most people can't do that so I'm special. My teacher also said that it's a shame I wasn't born into a noble family where my gifts would be appreciated and put to better use.