Southern Continent
Great River City
Location: In the Borders of the Thunder kingdom one of the three major city population 35 million.
A section of the Endless forest.
Here in the on the outskirts of the forest, under a tree beside a small river a few meters wide the water flowed quickly and calmly, the sound could still be herd if you were close enough.
A small girl with a shorth and thing figure, her hair was cut short, just above her shoulder.
With her knees close to her chest, soft sobbing could be heard on one listen enough over the sound of the rive flowing.
The little girl cried for a while after which she got up her legs numb and tired from walking all the way here and numb from hugging them close to her for the past few hours.
Slowly she walks pulling her mother body warped in the sheets she died in.
The young girl eyes were dull, seemly lost the light of a girl her age.
With her last family member now gone.
She was devastated.
The pain from her father's death was hard enough to this day she remembered his mauled body.
Now her mother had passed, with her last pillar had crumbled.
Now at her age she would have to face the world alone.
Stumbling a few times but she managed to keep her balance.
Slowly she walked for a while, she arrived beside a water fall that was up stream, her the water was stronger.
Even though water burial was cheaper, what you get a grave plot in the city and it was even in the out parts, the cost of purchasing and up keep was beyond what they could afford so her mother made to waste money burying in such and extravagant way.
However, she was reluctant to burry her mother such, she wanted to be able to come back an visit in the future, the location where her mother could rest.
With burying here with various beast here wither the water or the ground her body, regardless of her condition well sooner or later be eaten, that alone made her reluctant to just dump it in the river.
Biting her lips strongly she looked at her mother body, then made her decision.
She would bury her mother in the only other place she had fond memories of.
Heading close the massive water fall the refreshing water droplets blowing by the wind coming down.
They soaked her shirt while making the area round wet as well, the hard-stone ground was slippery when the wind was strong, she would have to take care walking especially with the weight she was carrying.
Arriving at her destination she moves some bushed gently out of the way carefully not to break them.
The bushed were a few meters thick and behind they covered a small cave entrance it was her little spot where she would hide from her father when the used to play.
Now it would be where she would lay her mother rest.
Removing a thick green past that had a strong smell, applying it over the sheet this would keep the animals and insects, removing a large gourd poring some it over, the green substance rapid hardens, securing the body , alloying to decay without attracting gross incest's ,
Removing a small shovel and a small glow stones she searches for soft ground digging deep enough to burry her mother.
2 hours later she finished pull her mother body with the last of her strength and covering she was exhausted , but she still needed to clean herself before she went to sleep or she would just wake up in the middle of the night with itchy skin , leaving the cave she found and area with the water flow was weak quickly was her had and feet drying she puts on a new set of close .
Feeling much better physically but still a bit tired , she had back in the cave made sure the bushes didn't seem disturbed like her father showed her with a thick blanket she cover her hair still wet and would take some time to dry , in the mean time she grave an a assortment of fruity and berry few herbs she pick up that were edible and that would spoil quickly.
It was a enough for a few days.
After sleeping she would head back to the city, and find an small inn and say there for some time or if its not safe enough she would stay in the forest for some time , she could navigate in forest , as amateur the forest was a lost less dangerous compared to the human in the city.
Her mother never took her to the clan she currently worked as a servant.
Even though she asked to visit all the time, after hearing her mother description of the clan compound and the many houses.
While she could visit some other area than the slums. Other places like the outer city needed to pay a fine to enter and inner area one needed passes to enter, unless one's a cultivator.
Even the slum was under control of the small clan after all they were the designated guardians here , and the over glorious tax collectors , money women , children who were either sold to keep the family or just taken away because said family could not payback in time , while mostly girls were taken , boys would be occasional taken as well.
Reason she had asked so much before was because she could get to see a different side of the city , flowers bloom and clean waters in the water ways , more than the brothels and bars would you're here joyous laughers. A simple look was all she asked but it seems her mother was facing a different kind of darkness.
Looking over to her stone grave again in a daze she remembered the information she told her before she died.
...
Few hours earlier
A narrow dirt path a young girl was carrying two buckets of water with a shoulder yoke she had come from a river nearby, her mother recent came back after from the city feeling sick after picking her up from the small store, she worked sorting cheap herbs.
Her mother brought her too their small wooden logged her father build when they got together a few months before I was born, so I was told at least.
Quickly entering the house from the back gently putting down the water buckets, attentive not to spill any. after her mother pick her up saw they would spend a few days here.
Initially she didn't find it weird as they normally came back a few times a year mainly to pay respect to her father grave.
Or just any time her mother felt like coming as she worked in shift at a medium rank clan in the city. the employers made sure not to have servants say too long and a batch would stay and every now and then have them shifted to get familiar and with the valuables.
As this cause them to watch each other after all no one wants to received blame for something that didn't, prevent swipes, naturally a frame here and there happens occasionally.
This was the reason why they had come back they would be back in the city in a few days, she enjoyed the atmosphere in the woods. the area where they were was generally safe unless a beast advances to the golden core realm at which a beast tide would ensue.
All smaller village and towns even some small cities.
Her father was fishing for dinner when the tied came and sacrificed himself so her and her mom could get to safely in the underground shelter her build in. He sustained heavily injuries and died a few hundred meters from the house luckily no beast came after he had killed the that one.
After which my mother had received a job are a servant at the Greenwood clan in the city.
This time however mother ran a high fever as soon as she came back fainted too, she had gotten her in bed and rushed to the river to get some water.
In her mother room her mother lay the with a pale face, her lips were purple, she had learned it was assigned a poison, while she wasn't sure what kind, the fever she could suppress but the poison on the other hand she couldn't do much about and their location made that much worse.
Receiving a small wooden bowl with some water she grinded some common herbs after getting it in a past she grabbed a cloth a tired her nose, tilting her mother head up she opens her mouth.
Light violet vapor came from her slow but gentle breath, she was burning up around her head
With one the small leaving she had rinsed in the river she used it to apply some past at the top other inside of her mouth then a bit at the bottom, slowly closing then reaching back take the pillow then giving it a fluff and flipping it on the cool side for comfort.
Grabbing another bowl, she wet a cloth then placing it on her forehead, she repeated this a few times when she got hungry, she would eat the food she had carried to eat for the 2 days they would stay here,
Few hours passed before she saw her mother moving, she drew closer to her with the cloth still covering her face she held her hands they felt close to the touch. She could make something for the chills, but she would have to hurt the sun would be setting in a hour or two.
She would let her mother know before leaving just to be safe.
A tight grip from her hand brought her attention back to her mom, seeing her eyes open, but with a dazed expression.
"Mother" as soon as she spoke her mother eyes snapped towards her. Her once rose-pink lips now purple folded press tightly together, then after she stared biting her lip.
She could tell her mother was peeved about her current situation, which doesn't bode when for her. Giving her moth's reaction she asked.
"What happened? why are were here? "her voice coming out a bit muffled because of her cloth but with the surrounding a quite as it is it could still be heard.
Giving the circumstances she must have an idea of who or even who she was poison, furthermore she must have known too since she still decided to come here.
However, she would give her mother a change to explain.